Ibon, MIEfem f . Wmnekt 

/Memorial 



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cj 



Serinon,;. mih Bhhteem^. 

3une:S, 1802 , 



3l ^XBCOXXVBZ 



DELIVERED AT THE FUNERAL OF 



^lon. gEillictm J|. SShe^kr^ 



REV. SAMUEL T. CLARKE. 



FOLLOWED BY 

ADDRESSES AND LETTERS. 



Printed for Private Circulatio: 
1892. 






6^ .S 



BUFFALO, N. Y. 
BUFFALO COMMERCIAL PRINTING HOUSE, 



o 



S>cvmces 



At the Funeral of Hon. William F. Wheeler, 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8th, i8q2. 

£. git tk£ i)0x:0£ : 

1. Prayer with the Family, Rev. Isaac G. Ogden. 

[This was at 3 P. M., immediately after wliich the casket was borne 

to the church, where it could be approached for an 

hour by all the neighbors.] 

2. {a) Prayer, at 4 P. M., by the Pastor, . . Rev. S. T. Clarke. 

(d) Scripture Lesson, Read by Rev. Dr. Waith. 

(c) Benediction, Rev. I. G. Ogden. 

'^ 

EE. 3lt the (nmxc\\ : 

1. Organ Prelude and Anthem. 

2. Prayer of Invocation, .... 
Lessons: Eccl. xii. ; John xvii., 

3. Hymn. 

4. Prayer, Dr. Waith. 

5. Hymn. 

6. 5IijaiK©W (LCor. XV. 58), Pastor. 

7. Address, Rev. I. G. Ogden. 

8. Hymn. 

9. Address, Dr. Waith. 

10. Prayer and Benediction, Pastor. 

Cemetery : 

Procession thither by way of the mountain road. 

Prayer, Dr. Waith. 

Committal, Pastor. 



I Dr. Waith. 



Sermon^ 



Steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work 
of the Lord." I. CoR. xv., 58. 



Many years ago there stood in the city of 
Hartford a remarkable tree that was regarded 
with a truly human interest and affection by 
all the inhabitants. The venerable Charter Oak, 
as it was called, had become a popular idol, 
because it had safely hidden and preserved 
in its capacious heart the instrument which 
insured valued civil rights to that whole com- 
munity. The writer well remembers a wild 
and stormy night, during whose dark and 
windy hours the old monarch, banded about 
as it had been by the citizens, with clamps 



Sermon* 



of iron, fell, and great was the fall of it. In 
the morning following great crowds gathered 
and bewailed the common loss. We are 
assembled to-day in view of an analogous 
calamity. In the great heart of our departed 
friend, for many years all the choicest interests, 
civil, social, commercial, and religious, of this 
county had found a warm and safe abiding 
place. We mourn to-day the fall of a human 
Charter Oak, one who was ever steadfast, 
unmovable, always abounding in the work of 
the Lord. It is very rare that those who par- 
ticipate in any great battle remain long on 
the field after the action is over. This valley 
has been for fifty years a great battle field, 
on which sturdy warriors have wrested from 
reluctant nature the rich treasures which she 
guarded so faithfully. One of the leaders in 
this long action lies motionless among us to- 
day. On the battle field where he commenced 
the long conflict he has both lived and died. 



Sermom 



not, however, until he saw victory manifest 
itself in these streets, happy homes and circling 
families, where reigned, when he arrived, only 
the thick shadows of a wilderness. 

In enlarging upon the lives of prominent 
citizens there are three methods that obtain. 
They are either treated in a cold, statistical man- 
ner, or in the commercial method recounting 
how much money they have made, or in an 
emotional manner that exclaims "how we miss 
the departed one ! " It is not my purpose to 
follow either of these methods to-day, but rather 
briefly to characterize our departed friend's 
life, and to draw from it certain lessons that 
may be of practical value to this large con- 
gregation assembled from this and adjacent 
towns. We call a gifted person who takes a 
cold, lifeless block of stone and cuts out of it 
a figure that can neither move nor talk a 
sculptor. How much more true is it that one 
who seizes upon inanimate objects and so uses 



Sermon. 



them as to mould them into new form, who 
possesses in his mmd a high ideal which he 
gradually works into a model community, who 
takes the days as they come and carves them 
into a noble life, is in a far higher sense a 
sculptor, whose work is living, breathing and 
priceless. The fanciful imaginings of the sculp- 
tor and poet have a commercial value. How 
much more precious are memories like those 
which cluster about this silent bier, decked 
with the fragrant pine which he so truly loved, 
and to which he owed so much. It is difficult 
to know where to begin a funeral resume of 
such a life as this has been. There are those 
whose personality impresses us, but of whom 
when absent we can remember but little; but it 
was a decided peculiarity of the departed that he 
was a man about whom all can remember so 
much, about whom the recollections surge back 
so vivid and multitudinous that it is hard to 
tell where to begin or to stop. Before noticing 



Sermon. 



the great lineaments of his character it will 
be interesting to dwell upon some of the 
general impressions which he made from day 
to day upon all who came in contact with him. 
William F. Wheeler was born in Hancock, 
Delaware County, N. Y., in 1811. In 1834 
he came to Olean and engaged in the lumber 
business with the late Henry Dusenbury. Dur- 
ing half a century that firm has continued. 
He united with the church in Deposit, in 1831, 
during a revival of religion, under that fervent 
preacher Father Orton, and ever since, his 
whole heart has been engaged in spreading the 
Kingdom of his beloved Master. In addition 
to the development of all his lumber interests 
in this section, in Pennsylvania and in Michi- 
gan, Mr. Wheeler was connected with the 
establishment of the Portville tannery in 1870; 
the First National Bank of Olean in 1871. 
Always deeply interested in politics and active 
in the support of sound views, he at last con- 



10 Sermon. 



seated that his name be used as a candidate 
for the Legislature, to which he was duly- 
elected, and in which he served to the entire 
satisfaction of his constituents, and with great 
credit to himself as a citizen and public man. 
He esteemed it an equal honor when he was 
sent by his fellow Presbyterians to the Synod 
and General Assembly, in both of which he 
sat as an Elder and magnified his office. His 
business career was well characterized by one 
of the public journals, when it said that it 
was conspicuously marked by these three rare 
qualities : sagacity, integrity and enterprise. 

Mr. Wheeler leaves, as one of his most 
valuable contributions to the world, a family 
which was ever a subject of the deepest interest 
and thought to him, consisting of a wife, two 
sons and two daughters, in whom reappear the 
noble traits which so well distinguished their 
departed head. 

Every one was struck as he came in 



Sermon. ii 



contact with this strong life with the breadth 
of Mr. Wheeler's enjoyments. Some people 
have but one or two things which afford 
them pleasure in their hours of relaxation. To 
these they often become slaves, being lovers 
of pleasures more than lovers of God. Most 
of us are extremely limited in the range of our 
pleasures. A man may be enormously rich, 
and yet not have a single thing that he 
honestly enjoys. If he has one, it may be 
really a source to him of evil rather than good. 
But Mr. Wheeler keenly relished a very wide 
circle of diverse sources of enjoyment. If any 
one of these failed he could easily turn to 
another. Not one of them was ever likely to 
result in evil. Not one of them was dependent 
upon the possession of great wealth to obtain. 
He most thoroughly and heartily took pleasure 
in business, in church, in politics, in trees, in 
horses, in the Bible, in singing in his family, 
in ministers, in the anecdotes of his long life, 



12 Sermon. 



in being read to, and in Portville. But in 
many other common attractions which fasci- 
nate others, he seemed to find no delight. 
Theatres, novels, horse races and games of 
chance were to him dull and stupid. This was 
certainly a unique peculiarity. It was a wonder 
that a man with such great business interests 
resting upon his mind, with all the necessary 
anxieties which they involved, could turn from 
them so quickly and solace himself in the 
things mentioned. So healthy, however, was 
his soul that he found genuine and immediate 
happiness, not in artificial and expensive joys, 
but in the simple, natural objects with which 
he in common with almost every other human 
being was surrounded. 

Any one acquainted with our friend must 
have remarked again many times that he was 
possessed of a very unusual focusing power. 
It is a rare trait of character that enables its 
owner to bring all the separated rays of influ- 



Sermon. 13 



ence within his reach at a moment's notice in 
combination and activity to play upon some 
single and little point. He had himself well 
in hand. There was not a truant power in his 
nature. Neither was there any that did not 
obey the call of their master without delay or 
hesitation. He was able on the shortest notice 
to rivet his entire being as he did his remark- 
able eyes upon any given matter that came 
under his observation. This was done, too, with 
a rapidity and comprehensiveness and force that 
was like machinery. A person who expected 
to catch him napping in any business matter 
was rudely awakened to an appreciation of the 
kind of man he was dealing with, and felt as 
though he had been struck with a sledge 
hammer. He was not only quick to discern, 
but quick to decide, and quick to act. There 
are men in great numbers who possess unques- 
tioned abilities, but who are slow in bringing 
them to bear upon any given subject. They 



14 Sermon* 



are not on call. They ask the indulgence of 
the customary thirty days before making up 
their mind; they hesitate and delay and post- 
pone, though they may ultimately fall in line 
and do admirable service. But with Mr. 
Wheeler you always felt that he instantly 
brought to bear his judgment, his will, and all 
his activity upon anything that interested him. 
There was also in his disposition a most 
stalwart positiveness, that would naturally make 
him leader in whatsoever he undertook. In 
this day of uncertainty and non-committal 
weakness, in which many through indifference 
or indolence fail to take any position upon 
the great topics of the hour, in state, in church 
and in business, we cannot value too highly 
one who first thoroughly examined the ground, 
and then firmly occupied his position and 
never surrendered. He was a man of decided 
convictions, and conviction with him meant 
action. Not only in little matters, but in 



Sermon. 15 



grave concerns he was up and down, giving 
forth no uncertain sound, positive at all times. 
There were but few subjects that were worth con- 
sideration upon which he had not made up his 
mind, and it required no astute cross -examiner 
to extract from him his testimony. Strange 
as it would appear to one who had never seen 
him, there was mingled with all these traits a 
beautiful playfulness that flashed up even after 
a heated discussion, as quickly as the sun often 
shines after a summer storm. Never old, he 
was often as playful as a boy with children 
and with the loved domestic animals that 
abounded about his home. Whether it was a 
deer or a colt or a kitten, each seemed to 
recognize the hand of one who wanted to 
hold dumb intercourse with it. It would be 
pleasant to continue this familiar detail of what 
all know of the more private characteristics of 
our departed friend as observed by those that 
met him in the familiar intercourse of daily 



16 Seimon. 



life, but we must turn from them to regard 
him in another aspect. 

He was emphatically a square built and 
thoroughly square man. The four sides of this 
square corresponded to his four great relations 
with his fellow men. In foreign countries those 
who acquire prominence in the community are 
apt to seclude themselves in parks behind high 
impenetrable palings, and withdraw into strict 
privacy, Mr. Wheeler lived in the world, 
came in contact with all its activities, and 
in four great relations won for himself the 
proud reputation of standing true and plumb 
with all mankind. It was a truly charac- 
teristic thing when he removed all fences 
about his pleasant home ; for he was constitu- 
tionally social, and desired to enter into relations 
with every one in whatever capacity he could 
serve the community. 

Let us notice the first side of this square. 
He was pre-eminently a man. He was intensely 



Sermoiu 17 



masculine. His commanding figure, his strong 
gestures, his deep -carved countenance, his 
forcible speech, all his original personality, 
as he walked through these streets, fearing 
no man, and shunning no man, or as he 
rose to speak in a meeting, were those of a 
true man. He meant to succeed ; he was 
willing to fight for it ; and he was bound to 
conquer. To his very last day he retained his 
strong manhood in every respect. He never 
was an invalid or a suppliant for sympathy; 
and on his sick-bed insisted to the last in 
waiting upon himself and offering consolation 
to all about him. All when they came in 
contact with him felt that they Avere dealing 
with a man. He would do the work easily and 
cheerfully that he asked any one else to do ; 
there was no task which he regarded as beneath 
him or considered himself above performing, 
no manual labor to which he would confess 
that he was not equal. In the woods, on the 



18 Sermon, 



raft, among horses, on the farm, in the bank, 
he aimed to know about everything; and if 
occasion required would teach any employee 
what he had learned by practice himself. So 
into all that a man should enter he entered, 
and was equally at home on a lumber pile or 
in the assembly room at Albany. Fully 
developed manhood was the first side of this 
square. 

He was, in the second place, a model 
father. His home was a place far more im- 
portant to him than his office. The duties 
devolving upon him there he regarded as 
important as any which he had. He had a 
theory that if a man's family did not turn out 
creditably it was his own fault, and that the 
man who neglected his offspring for his ledgers 
was guilty of sin. So he watched his growing 
children more closely than he did any business 
interest, and was more concerned about their 
condition than he was about that of oil fields 



Sermon. 19 



or dividends. He guided their education wisely, 
but said often that it was about their characters 
he was most concerned. Both by precept and 
example he imprinted upon their minds all 
the good maxims which a varied experience had 
taught him. He was a firm believer in family 
prayer, and he made it always an important 
feature in the history of every day. The daily 
song and the daily chapter he regarded as more 
necessary than the daily paper. He brought up 
his family, and God enabled him to do it well. 
He was so successful that they have all turned 
out as he desired, and not one of them has 
ever been anything but a source of comfort 
and of joy to him. 

Let us notice the third side of the square. 
He was a Christian. He was never ashamed 
of it, and never concealed it. Sooner would 
he cut off his right hand than he would be 
ranked with unbelievers or atheists. It was a 
part of his bone and marrow. Religion to 



20 Sermon. 



him was greater than business, and he labored 
to stamp it upon all his commercial interests. 
It was the master force in his life. In his 
early life he was untiring in revival labors, and 
in later life in establishing churches in all this 
county, and in aiding commendable charities 
throughout the country. The Randolph Home 
for Poor Children, the Freedmen's Colleges, 
the public libraries, the feeble churches of all 
denominations, the religious institutions at 
Hickory and in Michigan were constant re- 
cipients of his benefactions. 

In the fourth place, he was a Presbyterian 
Elder. He was elected to this position in 
this church in October, i860. Having sat 
under the ministry of Dr. Lyman Beecher ; 
he had something of the old-fashioned ideas 
of the dignity of the church and of its offices. 
In the Session he was a power, in the Prayer 
Meeting a guiding spirit, in the Sunday School 
an able executive. He was well acquainted 



Sermon. 21 



with the Confession of Faith, and had very 
positive convictions as to its merits and defects. 
He was well grounded in the methods of church 
government, and made a frequent study of all 
the questions in which elders take a special 
interest. As a Presbyterian church officer he 
stood firm throughout the county in regard to 
all matters that involved religious principles, 
on occasion writing to Assemblymen and Con- 
gressmen upon matters in which he feared they 
were not inclined to take the correct position, 
and by influences private and public he suc- 
ceeded in influencing legislation in the interest 
of all that was commendable and praiseworthy. 
While in no sense a partisan or sectarian, he 
knew what he believed, and maintained it for 
the best interests of the State and Church. In 
examinations of candidates for the Holy Com- 
munion, he was always relied upon as able to 
arrive' at a correct knowledge of the experience 
and purpose of those who presented themselves. 



22 Sermon. 



and never would consent to admit those to 
church fellowship whom he regarded as not 
yet fully prepared for those solemn responsi- 
bilities. Kind and gentle with the timid, he 
was never deceived by the insincere, but con- 
scientiously guarded the portals of the sanctuary 
as one who must himself in the future render 
an account of his stewardship. No pastor ever 
had an elder who entered more fully into all 
the activities of the church, and who was more 
truly a support upon which to lean than 
William F. Wheeler. 

In bidding farewell to our beloved friend, 
then, there are two pointed lessons which we 
cannot fail to note. 

First, all our young people may well learn 
from his example, that religion is not designed 
in any sense to diminish innocent human 
pleasures. In his life every good earthly 
enjoyment was entered into most fully, and 
without interfering in any way with the sane- 



Sermon. 23 



tions of his religion. This always retained the 
throne. Christianity elevated in his case every 
earthly form of pleasure. It heightened all his 
enjoyments, and it stood by him at all times 
and in all places. 

Second, we must learn that when all things 
else failed to minister to him, Christian 
faith watched by his bedside and sustained 
him. He ceased to enquire about the tannery 
or farm or bank, and seemed to have lost all 
interest in them, but he never ceased to call 
his family about his bed-side for the daily 
prayer and to sing his favorite hymns, in 
which he audibly joined until unconscious- 
ness dropped its curtain over his lofty soul. 
What a lesson as to the true wealth and as to 
the wisdom of acquiring a vested interest in 
the Kingdom of God. All else must fail, to 
all else the human soul at last becomes totally 
indifferent, but this, like the Word of God, 
abideth forever. And so it came to pass that 



24 Sermon. 



his last words, when he became aware that he 
was making a final and total assignment of all 
that it had taken a long life to accumulate, 
were those beautiful expressions to his beloved 
daughter, as she leaned over him, wondering 
if he was regretting what most would regard 
as an immense loss, ''It is all right; it is 
all right." 

As the first pilgrims from England looked 
at the ships which had brought them over from 
the mother-land, spreading their sails for the 
return voyage, and waved their hands to the 
friends on board who were going back, and 
felt that they were those left behind and 
bereaved and in need of sympathy, so we 
to-day, as his stately bark slowly sails down 
the bay, carrying with it his soul and the pearl 
of great price which he had obtained in this 
far country, seem to realize that he needs no 
sympathy ; for we are those that are to be 
pitied, while he has gone home to the greater. 



i 



Sermon* 25 



the more blessed, the happy land, far, far away. 
We can follow hmi as he meets his old business 
partner, and as they sit down together on the 
banks of the great river, as they did beside 
this rolling Allegany, and consult and plan, 
as we know they are doing, for new enterprises 
and new ventures and new projects which shall 
redound, in the new country in which they 
once more set forth as pioneers, to the glory 
of God, as did all their projects here below. 
Freed from all earthly diseases, they are young 
once more together ; neither are idle nor can 
be, but alert and active in the interests of that 
better country from which they shall go no 
more out forever. 



Hbbress bp IRep, ITsaac 0, ©G^en» 



I have been in the pews instead of the 
pulpit for the past four months, practicing 
instead of preaching. True practicing and 
preaching ought to go together, but they do 
not always ; and sometimes practicing is not 
so easy as preaching. Being uncertain whether 
my voice will serve me, my remarks will 
necessarily be very brief, though I am full of 
the spirit of the occasion, and feel that I have 
met to-day a great personal loss m the burial 
of one of the best friends I ever had. And 
besides, I feel that after the true and graphic 
sketch of the life and marked peculiarities of 
the departed, to which we have just listened, 



B^^ress, 27 



very little remains to be said ; yet I cannot 
refrain from adding my little tribute of 
affection and respect to the memory of this 
" Father in Israel." 

When I came here some thirty-four years 
ago to be Pastor of this church, I early made 
the acquaintance of three men whom I soon 
learned to appreciate and trust for their sterling 
qualities of head and heart. I did not fully 
appreciate them while here as I learned to do 
afterwards. These three men were exceedingly 
unlike in physical appearance as well as mental 
capacity. Each was himself, unmistakably so ; 
each created in a separate mould, and each 
working out in his own way his individual man- 
hood. Yet these men were also all alike in the 
great essentials of Christian character ; all three 
believed in the Lord Jesus Christ ; all bowed 
to His supremacy ; all were loyal to Him, and 
all were active and devoted members of this 
church. One of these, Henry Dusenbury, made 



28 B^Dre66. 



his exodus from his tabernacle of the body to 
the house of many mansions over thirty years 
ago, and the savor of his piety still lingers 
among this people ; another, John G. Mersereau, 
departed some nine years ago ; and to-day we 
are to bury William F. Wheeler, the last of 
this remarkable trio. It is seldom that a church 
is favored with the presence and influence of 
one such man in the first forty years of its 
existence ; you, Christian brethren, have been 
especially favored in having been given three 
such stalwart men among you. 

Who can take this man's place? No one. 
He filled his own place, as each of us is to 
fill his own place. Shall we mourn for him? 
Yes, and no. Why should we mourn that he 
has just entered on a larger and nobler life? 
To the believer in Jesus, dying is only begin- 
ning to live. No, we may not mourn that he 
is now crowned victor over sin and death. 
But we may mourn for his loss to us. How 



2lt)0re96. 29 



great that loss is, you will learn more and more 
as the days go by. 

Permit, in closing, a reference to myself. 
Under the great trials that have recently come 
to me, I have been wonderfully sustained and 
comforted. In my experience, I have found 
the fulfillment of the promise recorded in the 
prophecy of Isaiah : ''Thou wilt keep him in 
perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon thee," 
I have peace, not perfect, but peace, and I 
find it by renouncing all trust in self, and 
in staying myself in God. Every day, I 
commit myself anew to the Almighty Saviour ; 
and when He has His hold upon me, I know I 
am safe for no one can "pluck me out of His 
hands." 

May my experience of God's sustaining grace 
be the experience of you all, dear afflicted 
friends; only may you have perfect peace, ''the 
peace of God which passeth all understanding." 



Hbbress b^ Dr, Maltb* 



A noted divine in our country preached a 
remarkable sermon* to develop the theme that 
"Every Man's Life is a Plan of God" — a plan 
sometimes marred or ruined by the man's own 
perversity, but nevertheless a plan, or outline, 
which it is one's duty and privilege to fill out, 
and embracing things which it would be the 
true significance and glory of his being to 
accomplish. 

It has been mine by a long, personal acquaint- 
ance with our dear departed brother, to observe 
the remarkable fidelity and perseverance with 



* Horace Bushnell : first sermon with above title in the vohime 
Sermons for the Ne-iv Life." 



B0Dre65. 31 



which he ever seemed to be filling out the plan 
providentially sketched for him by One who 
sets us all our tasks, and has our times in His 
hand. I think I may say with confidence there 
is not one here who with clear vision can look 
back farther, or so far, along the line of his 
endeavors as I can ; for I remember him dis- 
tinctly when he and his brother, the late Mr. 
Addison J. Wheeler, were young, unmarried men, 
rejoicing in their strength, active, daring, mus- 
cular, never shrinking in the rough struggle with 
pioneer hardships and dangers from any deed 
or exposure in forest or in flood, which fell to 
the lot of men in their calling. I can see as 
in a panorama how our friend went steadily 
forward, appearing with dignity and credit in 
every part of his career, and in every character 
he was called to assume — employer, merchant, 
organizer, financier, husband, father, public- 
spirited citizen, church officer, delegate, com- 
missioner, legislator. In all these characters, he 



32 a^Dress. 



' ever conscientiously sought to do the work of 
an honest, God-fearing man. And his whole 
life was a success. God blessed him from the 
beginning, crowning his days with lovingkind- 
ness and tender mercies. So far as we can 
see, he honestly and creditably filled out the 
plan by which the Eternal Goodness intended 
him to glorify God. 

And now we are to learn, as it was hardly 
possible for us to know before, how large a space 
he filled in the counsels and the works of his 
fellowmen. Well as I knew that he was press- 
ing close upon the boundary where all thought- 
ful men must begin to contemplate the solemn 
possibilities of the life to come, I must confess 
that when I saw the name of William F. 
Wheeler in the obituary columns of the city 
papers I was hardly prepared to measure the 
significance of the announcement. 

We must fall back upon the comforting 
thought that the good and wise Lord whom 



BDDress. 33 



we profess to love and obey knows when to 
call His servants from their tasks, when to bring 
every pilgrim home, and has in view absolutely 
all the circumstances and interests involved. 
He does nothing purposeless or aimless, even 
when He wraps a whole city in flood and fire.^ 
He that appoints the fall of every sparrow 
remembers you, remembers me, knows just what 
we can bear and ought to bear, just what we 
can spare and when we can spare it best, and 
has in view all our interests, bodily, temporal, 
and spiritual, as we never could possibly have 
them in view for ourselves. 

To say that we are afflicted is to say little 
or nothing. There are experiences that are so 
sad and painful that words of description do 
but play over them, like the mists exhaled from 
the dark river, telling us nothing of the drown- 
ing depths beneath. We who minister to-day 



*An allusion to the terrible disasters which had just befallen the 
towns of Oil City and Titusville on the river below. 



34 BDDress. 



in this funeral know each one what it is to lose 
a dear and honored father. And we know, 
too, what these bereaved ones know — what it is 
to be guided and inspired by a sacred memory 
that, like a benign lode-star, cheers every labor 
and sweetens every cup along every mile of 
the weary way. 

The question, ''Who was their father?"* is 
a question which we are proud and happy to 
answer. 

Oh what an inheritance these dear friends of 
ours have in the fragrant memory of the good 
and noble man whom God has called up higher ! 

I know some words of description in the 
Bible the application of which you will all 
recognize : 

''Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? 
who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that 
walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, 



I 
I 



*I. Samuel lo : 12. 



BDDress. 35 



and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that 
backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to 
his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against 
his neighbor. In whose eyes a vile person is 
contemned ; but he honoreth them that fear 
the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, 
and changeth not."* 

For me, this whole place is full of Mr. 
Wheeler, these roads and walks, these trees, 
that mountain path, and the sweetly winding 
Allegany. But we know that the master is 
really gone ; and the mountain that he knows 
now is the high mighty hill of God, and the 
river he knows now is that which makes glad 
the city of God. 

* Psalm 15. 



^Letters* 



[The following are selected from the numerous tributes of 
sympathy and affection that were received by the family of Mr. 
Wheeler immediately after the news of his death.] 



A long, happy, successful and useful life has 
reached the earthly ending. 

And we who believe in the gospel of immor- 
tality have come to regard the ending as but 
the beginning of life. Death does not end all. 
After the night comes the day. Spring follows 
Winter. Death blossoms into life everlasting. 

This was Mr. Wheeler's firm and life-long 
faith. In that faith he has fallen asleep : 

"Asleep in Jesus! peaceful rest, 
Whose waking is supremely blest." 



betters. 



I knew your husband for thirty-five years. 
He always received me with kindness from the 
first day that I visited Portville. I have had 
many conversations with him. I always found 
him the same genial and generous friend. 

What changes have taken place in the old 

Portville homes ! How the good and true men 

and women of that little town, having finished 

their labors, have been borne up the hill to the 

quiet cemetery for the long and unbroken rest ! 

And I rejoice to feel that Heaven is richer 

because of the simple, earnest, sturdy faith of 

these dear old Portville saints and neighbors. 

I am sorry that personal illness keeps me from 

the services tomorrow ; but I ask you to 

remember me as a sympathizer with you and 

the children, and with the church so sorely 

bereaved at this time. 

J. H. V. 



38 Xctters. 



I was greatly shocked on learning, through 
the brief notice in last week's Evangelist, of 
your deep affliction. And now the fuller but 
still too meagre words in the Olean paper 
received today, bring back anew the memories 
of the past. 

The Times justly speaks of your father's 
eminence and worth in the local business enter- 
prises of Portville and Olean, of his church 
connection, and of his unblemished character 
as manifested in his consistent Christian life 
and generous philanthropy. Many beyond the 
bounds of his own community and county 
know full well the truth of this. As one of 
these, I wish to refer to one phase of his life 
naturally unmentioned in the Ti77ies. 

When I first became acquainted with the old 
Presbytery of Genesee Valley, your father was 
one of its oldest members. Every one looked 
up to him with respect and admiration. His 
unassuming manner, his excellent judgment, his 



TLettecs. 39 



good, practical common sense (as rare and 
valuable in an ecclesiastical body as elsewhere), 
his business ability, his genial way and happy 
faculty of making others happy and good- 
natured, made him recognized though scarcely 
a self-acknowledged power in Presbytery. Every 
member felt better, the whole Presbytery was 
better whenever he was present. 

The old Presbytery is a thing of the past ; 
but the members will never forget the quiet, 
earnest, cheerful, helpful fellow -member who 
was the recognized head of all, and whose 
influence for good remains with every one. 

You have my heartfelt sympathy in this your 

great sorrow. 

C. P. A. 



I cannot express to you our sorrow on 
hearing of Mr. Wheeler's death. But for the 
fact that I must leave the city this afternoon to 



40 Xettcrs. 



keep an engagement west, we would have gone 
to the funeral to-day. 

Yesterday, at the annual meeting of the Ran- 
dolph Children's Home, there was one universal 
expression of regret, and Mr. Wheeler's visit 
there last fall, and kindness to the institution 
always, were happily brought to mind. 

The trees he planted there so thoughtfully 

are all growing while he is gone. 

G. V. F. 



I can scarcely realize that so bright, cheery, 
kind and vigorous a person as Mr. Wheeler 
was, has passed away. He was a noble and 
good man, a most valuable citizen, one of the 
most earnest, manly and consistent Christians 
I ever met, and one of the kindest-hearted and 
most genial of hosts and friends. Few men 
have I ever met in a social, hospitable way, whom 
I revered and honored so much as I did Mr. 
Wheeler. 



ILetters. 41 



His life was so full of good deeds, kindly 
acts, noble aims and substantial success and 
honors that it made a grand life history. 

And when the kind Father has taken away 
some of the present bitter sorrow and enables 
you to look backwards and forwards, surely it 
will be some consolation to you to know, not 
only that your friends have shared in your 
sorrow and affliction, but that they and the 
community in which he lived and those who 
knew him throughout the land, think of him as 
a noble man, who was permitted to have a long 
and very useful life, and whose influence for 
morality, integrity and Christianity was felt by 
all around him and all who knew him, and that 
that influence will continue on into the far 
future. 

Such a life, with such a record is indeed a 

noble heritage to hand down. 

J. S. C. 



42 Xettei'6» 



It is good of you to write me now, and to 
let me stand beside you in spirit as I do to-day 
while you lay your father's honored head upon 
its last pillow. 

My mind has been lately full of you all, and 
of the anticipation of seeing your unbroken 
circle ; and I cannot yet realize that he, the 
wise, tender, strong, genial father is missing 
from your head. 

I mourn with you. I rejoice with you ; but it 
is not for me to offer you words of consolation. 
You have already all that can give comfort. 

Never had an afflicted family such fountains 
to draw from. He, and you all, have long 
since learned to trust the will, the wisdom, the 
love of our Father in Heaven. You all had 
the blessed privilege of watching together beside 
him to his last sigh. You have the memory of 
his rare and beautiful life, and you have the 
blessedness of a singularly united family affec- 
tion, bound up in constant communion with 



Xetters. 43 



your sainted father for many years beyond the 

common privilege of life. 

May the God of all consolation give you 

comfort and peace. 

E. A. F. 



This morning's mail brings me a letter tell- 
ing me of all you have been called to go through 
in these last days, and that now God has taken 
your father home. 

The " word " that comes to me as I think of 
it is, ''Precious in the sight of the Lord is the 
death of His saints." I think I never before had 
such a sense of the comfort there is in those 
words. To think that those who go from us 
not only enter into " peace that passeth all 
understanding," but that they are waited for, 
looked for with joy, and that their entrance 
into their heavenly home is precious to their 
and our Father in Heaven. Should it not 
comfort our hearts ? 



44 Xetters. 



You may know that I am looking forward to 
welcoming my sister here to-night. With all 
the joy this anticipation brings to me, it can 
only give me a feeble sense of that infinite joy 
of the Father's heart. Let us rejoice and be 
exceeding glad. 

The sorrow and the pain must come, but 
" thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

What more can I say after words of such 
deep comfort. 

''May the Lord lift up his countenance upon 

thee, and give thee peace." 

M. N. 



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